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Dire wolf
A dire wolf or wolf king is a possibly extinct kind of wolf once found in parts of Tyrrhos, with some evidence of its existence in the mountains of Neuphany. Sightings of dire wolves persist to this day, but there has yet to be any physical evidence or confirmed reports of a dire wolf since the Bronze Eras of Preliturgy. The dire wolf had thick black double-coat of fur, with a thick layer around its neck giving it a mane-like appearance. Its snout was somewhat shorter than that of a grey wolf found in Tyrrhos today, but its fangs were at least twice as long on a wolf of comparable size. Its tail was also much more dense with fur and slightly longer. Though most skeletons and recorded sightings of dire wolves would make them only about the size of a grey wolf, their musculature was similar to that of a mastiff, making them much stronger and wider to the point that they were more bear-like than wolf-like. Despite the fact that dire wolves rarely grew larger than wolves of Tyrrhos, there have been dire wolves of unusual size. One such dire wolf, the "Devil Wolf" that remains on display in the estate of the House of Jeger is over nine feet long, and would have weighed almost half a ton. It stands shoulder-to-shoulder with a Cantabrian mare. While most wolves avoid humanoid civilization, a pack of dire wolves was extremely territorial, where a single intruder on their hunting grounds would be chased and torn apart miles from the trespassing. Dire wolves roaming and looking for new territory could devastate any villages or towns they came across. The Diremen of the Kingdom of Themyscria were a crack team of rangers specifically formed by Erud to track dire wolf packs and eliminate them as they came close to human societies, one of the main reasons they no longer exist today. Cultural significance The dire wolf is referred to in various contexts in places where they once roamed, such as Cantabria and Crotalusia. In these regions, the dire wolf is included in certain religious buildings much like gargoyle in warding off evil spirits, being apotropaic. In Cantabria, the dire wolf is called a schwarzerwulf, or "black wolf," and a stylized depiction of the dire wolf often appears on the outer exterior of towns and cities as a way of warding away evil entities and intimidating hostile foreigners. The Nazari, though having closer associations with the bull, sometimes use the dire wolf in regions bordering Gantelusia. Here, a mythical variant of the dire wolf called the wiselevulf, or "white wolf-lion," is said to live in the Long Heavens near the South Point. The wolf is said to be even larger than the Devil Wolf of Cantabria, and exhales blizzards. The Nazari use the motif of the wiselevulf in parts of Crotalusia across the Dancers from Cantabria to incoporate local tradition into their hegemony, as well as display how far-reaching Nazari influence is to northern folk.Category:Beasts Category:Creatures